War fears as Israel strikes back
May spoke to Netanyahu by phone to express her support and to condemn the Iranian attacks, while reiterating the UK’s support for the Iran deal.
Both the UK and US called on Russia to do more to rein in Iran’s presence in Syria and avoid a further escalation. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, also condemned the attack in a call to Hassan Rowhani, the Iranian president.
The Israeli attacks are likely to strain the relationship between Iran and Russia, which are fighting on the same side in Syria on behalf of the Assad regime.
Israel warned Russia of its intention to launch strikes but Russian forces in Syria appear to have done nothing to shield their Iranian allies. Hours before the attack, President Vladimir Putin hosted Netanyahu as an honoured guest at a military parade in Moscow.
While Israel has scored tactical military victories over Iran in Syria, it has struggled with a broader diplomatic campaign to convince world powers to clamp down on Tehran. Netanyahu travels regularly to Moscow but his diplomatic efforts have so far yielded few visible results. Israel is also likely to have been emboldened by the arrival in the Trump administration of John Bolton, the new national security adviser, and Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, who take a much more hawkish approach to Iran than their predecessors.
Meanwhile, Bahrain voiced support for Israel’s strikes, in an unusual example of an Arab state publicly applauding Israel for dropping bombs on the territory of a fellow Arab state. – Telegraph Group